We describe the excimer-laser-induced crystallization of microcrystalline silicon films deposited by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD). Microcrystalline silicon films containing 2 at.% hydrogen can be used as precursor films for the laser recrystallization process without a dehydrogenation step, and provide a wider laser energy fluence process window than the previous explosive recrystallization for low temperature polysilicon (poly-Si) thin-film transistor (TFT) fabrication. Ellipsometry, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and atomic force microscopy (AFM) are used to evaluate the laser irradiated films. Specially, we describe using atomic force microscopy to obtain plane-view grain microstructure images. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.